These Dreams
by The.max.black
Summary: Every chapter starts with a dream, get it? Kinda corny. Starts out with the summer after 5th year, Durleys were almost being nice to Harry. OotP SPOILERS HP/GW, RW/HG, and RL/O.C. she's no Mary Sue, well, maybe, just a bit.
1. Happy Birthday?

A/N: I am sooooooooo pissed that Sirius died, so I am going to try as hard as I can in, my denial, to have Sirius still be in the story. Oh, and to all the Rooney fans out there, I know I didn't write some lyrics that may appear in the story, but I will use them. Oh, and each chapter opens with a dream, not always Harry's.  
  
Disclaimer: The honorable J. K. Rowling Owns Harry Potter, all other characters, and some schools and places, and no matter how much I hope and wish, they will never be mine!!! :(  
  
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These Dreams  
  
Chapter one: "Happy Birthday?"  
  
"Harry Potter, this is ALL YOUR FAULT!!! How dare you try and blame this on Albus Dumbledore! You are NOTHING but a petty MURDERER, destined to die at the hand of a snake! How could you try and let Albus take the blame?!?! I never want to see you again!" a pale Sirius screamed at Harry from a plain background. Next to him, a large shaggy black dog nodded in agreement.  
"I'm sorry, Sirius! I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt! I only wanted to save you!" Harry said back, his voice quivering, tears streaming down his face. He tried to reason with his godfather, but it didn't work. Bellatrix came in pointing and laughing. Sirius was had been replaced by Lupin, and the dog was now a snake, who slithered away, Bellatrix followed.  
"Hand me the map" Lupin said calmly, and as though this statement was expected.  
"What?" the, now, confused Harry asked.  
"The map, hand it over. The Marauders map," He added at the sight of Harry's confused look. "You killed one of the makers, you don't deserve it, hand it over!" Lupin added with some hostility. Harry tried to, then noticed that he no longer had arms or legs. He coiled a part of his tail around it and slithered to Lupin, returning he map to one of its rightful owners. "Thank you," He said avoiding touching Harry-the-snake, with a look of utmost disgust on his face.  
A snitch came flying into view. Soon followed by an arm that reached out to grab it, then human Harry. Then, the scar on human Harry disappeared ("bye bye being human, murderer," a voice seemed to say, though Harry could not tell whether it was his own thoughts, voice, or someone else), then the human blinked and his eyes turned hazel. "t's my dad!" Harry thought, maybe things were looking up.  
"You are NOT my son, murderer!" James said. Harry lost the ability to feel anything. He was so numb, so confused, how was he supposed to live his life like this? "I'm here for my mirror,"  
"Oh yeah," Harry hissed, handing James the mirror the same way he handed Lupin the map.  
"YOU BROKE IT! The one thing I had left to speak to my best friend with, and you carelessly BROKE IT!!!!!!" Harry dodged the mirror as it flew back at him full speed.  
Harry woke up "safe" in the Dursleys laced in spit and sweat (and could those be tears?) , and shaking. His mouth was dry, the air tasted awful to him. He went to the bathroom and washed his face. "I've got to stop having these dreams," he said to himself. He walked back to his room. It was 6:15 too late to go back to bed (he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep), so he sat down at Dudley's old desk and decided to start his homework.  
"Ow!" he exclaimed, he had hit his head on the shelf above the desk. "I can hardly see,"he told himself. It was so dark because the blinds were shut, tight. He opened them slightly so that there was enough light to write. He had an awful headache, too much light would irritate it. "Funny," he thought, "that shelf always seemed to high to be a threat to my head. Come to think of it, the ground seems farther away than usual, as well," He had grown!! And a noticeable amount as well! This was a big thing for Harry, as he was used to being a shrimp.  
  
And then it hit him, "Oh yeah! Great," It was Dudley's Birthday. He decided that he wasn't going to be the last one up this time, like usual. He raced down the stairs, and reached the bottom landing just in time to hear signs of life coming from Dudley's room. "Hey I'm not the last one up!" he thought to himself.  
Aunt Petunia "greeted" him and told him the plans for today. "Now I don't want you to ruin the surprise, " She said as though speaking to an animal. Little did Harry know, he was in for the big surprise. But that wouldn't be for a while.  
"Dudderkins, you up!!" Aunt Petunia practically screeched, with an enormous smile on her face. "How wonderful!" She muttered, "Now Harry, I expect you to be on your best behavior, we're leaving you alone for the day, and were not locking you in your room, though you will not be able to leave the house."  
Harry felt rather freed by this, it must have been out of sheer fear of attack by Harry's adult friends (you know, Tonks, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Lupin, Moody, and the Weasley twins sent them some mail yesterday, and a few trick sweets, which Uncle Vernon through out immediately). He wanted to talk to Mrs. Figg, he was sure Uncle Vernon would not object to a little adult supervision. Now, the trick was, "How am I going to get Uncle Vernon to agree to it, while making it sound like I don't wan it."  
"You listening to the rules, boy? No eating things that aren't in containers marked with your name, no funny business, not too many owls, and most important of all, BE SILENT!"  
Harry tried to hide his huge smile, "You mean I don't have be watched by that awful Mrs. Figg?" Harry asked, knowing this might trigger something.  
"Good point, he's not to be trusted. Petunia phone her and ask her to come over, we'll be gone to long to force Harry into he poor woman's house."  
Within about ten minutes, the Dursleys were gone, and Mrs. Figg was situated in the Dursley's living room. "So how are you Harry?" she asked, "I know this must be hard on you"  
Harry was glad she was there, he could write all he wanted to his friends and the Order members, but actually =speaking was different. It was true that t was a little harder to talk about it, but he felt he needed to, and there were somethings that he could not tell Ron and Hermione. "I guess I feel okay. It's just that, I feel so guilty, and I keep having these dreams," he explained, "Then I found this mirror," he showed her the mirror (which he had repaired before leaving Hogwarts), had I only used that instead of Umbiges fire, and," he stopped there, a tear streamed down his face "I'm acting like such a girl" he though to himself.  
"It's all right, you've been through a lot. I'm not sure I could've moved after seeing Sirius die, let alone go and fight that awful Bellatrix woman," Mrs. Figg comforted him "Don't worry, things will work out all right. You heard the prophecy, correct?" Harry nodded, "You will be he one to triumph, you've got to be, otherwise, you might as well have died one of the latest three encounters with You-Know-Who, but you didn't."  
"Neither did he. And that's another thing, why am I destined to be a murderer, according to you, or die at the hands of Voldemort. I don't want to cause more death. I'm sick of it!"  
"One really doesn't 'get used to it,' but over time, everyone learns to cope better."  
"Well that's good to hear, thanks for talking to me, i know it sounds weird, but I just needed to talk to someone who understood to keep from going crazy."  
"Well, I'm honored to be able to help," Mrs. Figg replied. Harry stood up to get some food. "My, I haven't seen you in almost a year, I hadn't realized how much you'd grown! You know your father wasn't very tall until about his sixth year either, odd," Mrs. Figg said. Harry wished he could see James in his sixth year, and he wouldn't mind if he could see him in his fifth year again. Mrs. Figg wrote a nice little report on how well Harry behaved for Vernon, just like he told her to.  
  
The night before his birthday, Harry was having trouble sleeping. He got up, and once again he went to the bathroom and look in the mirror. He messed his hair up the way James had in Snape's memory. He looked odd, he let out a small chuckle "How did he ever get my mom to go out with him?" He straightened his hair out as well as he could, but it didn't fix much, and he was about to go to sleep and mess it up some more, so there was no point.  
He dreamed the oddest thing, that when he woke up the Dursleys had planned a birthday party for him and invited Mrs. Figg, and Hermione (the only one who could properly operate a telephone without instruction, she explained), who brought along some Weasleys (well, all of them), and then Lupin came along, then Sirius showed up, then fifteen-year-old James nd Lily, and Cedric Diggory. As he came down the dead people screamed "Happy Birthday Harry!" the others all seemed surprised that it was his birthday, like they had forgotten.  
He was the last to wake up, which surprised him because 6:45 wasn't too incredibly late. He got dressed and went down the stairs, and when he got to the landing, there were the Dursleys, looking terrified, holding a birthday cake! "Oh, I'm dreaming again" he thought, only it wasn't true.  
"Happy Birthday, Harry" the words sounded so strange in Dudley's head, it sounded more like "Happy Birthday? Harry?", that it almost sounded like a question. It turned out that part of his dream was true. He got a cake, and he even got a present, CD player,and some CDs that Dudley recommended. Harry listened to them and thought they were awful! He gave the CDs to Dudley, but now he had something that belonged to him, and wasn't Dudley's! After writing about it to Hermione, she sent him some classical music CDs that she had doubles of, Harry was grateful. 


	2. Stay Away

A/N: More Rooney stuff. this story sucks, sorry. Actual romance-ish stuff in dis chapter. Hey look at that! I'm writin' dis at 2:00 am!  
  
Disclaimer: Guess who owns the stuff in my story? Not Me!!!!!! Yay!!!! I mean Awwww darn. Oh well, it's probably better in the hands her highness, J. K. Rowling  
  
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Chapter 2, Stay Away  
  
"Stay away from that Harry Potter boy, he's dangerous," Ron heard his brother tell him, as he shook his finger at Ron. Behind Percy the twins were making fun of their older brother. "And that Hermione girl too."  
"But what's wrong with her? She's always getting on my case to do my work, I owe my being a prefect to her."  
"She doesn't like you like you like her, if you spend too much time with her she'll realize and then things will be awkward. She'll stop talking to you, and will be afraid even to sit near you in class. If she does ever speak to you after she figures out you like her, she'll only be mad."  
"I don't believe you, there is nothing wrong with Harry. He was telling the truth! didn't you read the paper?" Percy had now turned into Bill who was telling the twins to stop puking, but they wouldn't. Ron looked away, it was really gross, but then, Ginny and Harry were kissing. Ron had no choice left but to wake up. He felt queasy. He hoped he would never have that dream again.  
He got up and got dressed and went downstairs. "Harry's coming today!" Hermione exclaimed, she had arrived at the burrow the day before. Ron was really excited, so was everyone else.  
"I can't wait 'till he gets here. I've got so much to tell him, like how the Cannons are totally killing everyone else this season, and I'm sure he's got loads to tell us, I hear the Dursley's felt threatened and were almost nice to him!"  
"Ya know, I'm sure he knows about the Cannons and all, he does get the Daily Prophet. But I can't wait to hear what it was that possessed the Dursleys to give him a CD player," Hermione commented.  
"He's got too much to worry about than to waste his time with the sports page!"  
"Then why would he care when he got here?"  
"Well he's going to be doing some mindless house work once we get back to the Order headquarters, and why not talk about it to help pass the time?"  
"Oh that's right!" Hermione exclaimed, "I forgot we were going back there. Poor Harry's going to b crushed when he see all Sirius' old stuff!" Hermione really wanted to talk to Harry, so she could ease him into it. She could hardly imagine how she would feel by going back, but Harry, there was no explaining what Harry would feel. "Hey, he's here!" A huge group of Weasleys (and Hermione) rushed over to greet him. After about twenty hugs, ten handshakes, and thirty-three apologies (all from Percy). Things settled down.  
"Wow, you grew!" Ron noticed.  
"Um, so did you," Harry responded.  
"Yeah, but you grew more than he did," Hermione informed Harry.  
Harry looked from Ron, to Hermione, to the ground, "Hey I did!" Harry then explained about the birthday party and the scary dream he had the night before. This sudden talk of dreams ( and the earlier apology for telling Ron to stay away from Harry) reminded Ron of the dream he had the night before. He looked at Hermione and blushed suddenly. Harry left the room that the three of them (just them) had been in to talk to the twins who were home momentarily while and employee of theirs watched the store.  
"Yeah it was going so well that we had to hire some extra help!" Fred exclaimed,  
"Thanks to the adds in the paper, we've been getting customers nonstop!" George added. "We gotta go, see ya tomorrow Harry!" then there was a CRACK, and the twins were gone. Harry decided to have a chat with Ginny.  
"Ron has really been annoying, telling me to stay away from Dean. 'He's been known to cheat on girls, he was caught kissing Padma while going out with Parvati' he keeps going on like that. I can't tell you how funny it is that he believed me on the train. No matter how much I tell him I was only joking, he just doesn't listen" Ginny informed him.  
Harry felt like telling Ginny "Stay away from my friend, Dean's a smooth operator. Stay away from me tonight, I've made other plans and you'll just be distracting me, but in a good way, " but, of course couldn't. He couldn't confess to her that it took until three years after Ginny got over him that he realized how much he loved her. Kinda sad.  
"So I heard you had an almost okay summer," Ginny said.  
"Well yeah, I guess, so far it was al right. The Dursleys treated me okay, I guess, but I really felt bad most of the time anyway," Harry told Ginny.  
"Oh," a sympathetic look spread across her face, "yeah I see how that could be, I'm sorry. I'm sure it must have been hard without being able even to talk to Sirius."  
Harry wanted to say "Well I feel better now that I'm with you," but decided against it, and said instead, "I'm feeling a little better now that I'm back in the wizarding community,"  
"Well that's good to hear."  
Meanwhile in another room in the kitchen, Ron and Hermione had been left to help Molly alone. They hadn't been left alone in a room since they stayed up for Harry to get back from detention, and that time they were both preoccupied with homework. Now, they had plenty of time to talk, and not much to talk about, all the while Ron's dream was playing over in his head. He was happy to be doing the opposite of what Percy told him, even if Percy didn't really say all that stuff. He couldn't imagine not being near Hermione, staying away from her seemed like a very bleak future.  
"You know, I know Dobby was the only one taking my clothes, but that doesn't mean that they don't want freedom, just that they don't know they want it," Hermione was ranting. She eventually realized that Ron wasn't listening. He was sort of staring at her and staring into space, and peeling potatoes all at once. She looked away, cleared her throat and smiled. Ron stopped staring.  
"Oh sorry, just thinking how the well Chudley Cannons played yesterday. Wish I could have been there," Ron lied. Hermione realized it, but he didn't notice how obvious it was. It would have been wise of him to take Percy's advice on girls, had Hermione not felt the same wy about him.  
"DINNER" Molly shouted, and everyone headed outside to eat. At dinner everyone conversed happily and ate more than they should have. It was all great fun for everyone until Arthur had the unfortunate job of telling Harry where they were headed the next day.  
"There still using the Black house, though they people were skeptical of it's safety until Kreacher died, of old age" he added seeing Hermione's look. 


	3. Out of Africa

A/N: Review! I know it ain't great, so tell ma what's wrong with it and I can fix it! Not so much Rooney this chapter, but I do try to fit in some Toto (Africa) I think I have a problem, I must always put pieces of songs in every chapter) bad max, bad! Lani is short for Leylani, I kind of switch back between the two.  
  
Disclaimer: I own Harry Potter (in my dreams) I really do! But in this "real world" that people seem to place such a huge emphasis on, J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter and all affiliated characters. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Chapter 3: Out of Africa  
  
Drums were echoing in the poor werewolf's head. He kept hearing, in what seemed to be Sirius' voice, "She coming back! SHE'S COMING BACK!" He could see her, beautiful dusky sky, and there she was flying on a thestral with some friends. Suddenly she lost control, the people she was with were not to be trusted! He watched her fall to the ground. Screaming, he tried to save her, after all she had kind of grown on him, but then he realized the full moon, he was wolf again. As she reached the ground she struggled through the air. He knew she had been flying to high, there was nobody near by, just a few primitive tribes, they wouldn't know what they were seeing.  
He came over to see her dying, then the wolf started taking over again, he tore her apart. At the smell of blood, a few wild dogs came out from surrounding bushes, but after seeing Remus, the wolf, they back off. Many of the dogs started howling at the moon in hunger.  
In total disbelief at what he'd done he headed to the nearest watering hole to get a drink, splash his face, and look at his reflection. There, he saw the reflection of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but when he looked up, it wasn't there. He saw the back of an old man, and called to him. It was Dumbledore! He asked why he couldn't see the mountain, but could see the reflection. Dumbledore told him that he had to stop searching so hard for it, and let it come to him. The best thing would be to forget about it. "But how can I forget, I think I just killed Leylani!" but Dumbledore simply shook his head. He looked at his own reflection, but was not the wolf that he expected to see, but Remus, the human. He ran from his reflection, afraid of who he had become. Sure those could not have been his gray hairs!  
He tried to correct what he was, to cure his wolven behavior in his human self, but it did not work. It started to rain, and he looked up. He saw James and Sirius at seventeen years old flying on their brooms. He wanted to warn them of the dangers of what they were doing, that they would fall like Lani did. But when he tried to yell, it came out as a wolf's howl, even though he was in human form. They started to fall, as well. He wanted to apologize for not warning them soon enough, but it was too late, they were gone. He saw a large, shaggy, black dog and a stag run away from where the bodies of his friends had been, they had disappeared. "They didn't belong here, they had to leave," Dumbledore told him, "they needed to get out of Africa."  
Remus woke up startled and crying. He already knew he had none of his old Hogwarts friend left, but Lani! What did the part about Leylani mean? It was 5:00 am, "Might as well get up now" Remus thought to himself. He went downstairs, to fix himself some breakfast. He was, oddly enough, hungry, a rarity for Remus in the morning. The Weasleys were coming over today. He needed somebody to stay long-term. He could not afford a place of his own, nor could he stand to live alone in the House of Black one more night.  
An owl came with a note. The handwriting was the generic writing of one of those quills you dictate to, and it writes. As common as he knew these were, he knew immediately who had sent it. "So my dream could have been predicting this," he thought to himself, Leylani's coming back from Africa. Leylani was a girl who was six years younger than him. They had met at Hogwarts, both Gryffindors who faced and triumphed over physical adversity. "She had the biggest crush on me," he remembered "She was the one who started the Remus Lupin Fan Club," but after low membership, she converted it to the Marauders Fan Club, "James and Sirius made it a popular club. I hated them for that." Then a wave of guilt passed over Remus, "How can I think of hating them, they were so great to me, worked so hard to make me feel like could fit in, and now I'm thinking about hating them. Now they're Dead!" He really felt awful "I should think more about hating that RAT wormtail (his name does not deserve capitalization), their deaths were both his fault. He was the one who caused James, and Lily, to not live long enough to even live to be thirty! He was the one who caused Sirius to live the last fourteen years of his life either in Azkaban, or in hiding, always trapped one way or another, his life might as well have ended when James' did. Why is that EVIL wormtail still breathing?" Remus struggled with theses thoughts just about everyday.  
But all that's not the point, Lani was coming back! One of his old friends (sort of). "I bet she's married and has kids. Maybe one is going to Hogwarts this year, I bet that's why she's coming back!" But he would soon be corrected. In fact, Lani's heart was still where it had been when he last saw her five years ago, far from any other man's hands.  
Later, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione arrived, this greatly lifted Remus' spirits. "Remus, I need to talk to you about something," Harry approached Remus. Ginny, Ron, and Hermione were also in the room, and started to leave. "No. I want you guys to stay. Harry said. They sat at the kitchen table. Harry took out the mirror and map from his pockets. Remus knew what this talk was going to be about, and longed for it just as much as he dreaded it. He told Remus to take the map. "It rightfully belongs to you, you are, were one of the Marauders," Harry mumbled the last part. "And also, this mirror used to belong to my father. Sirius had one too, you should have one, or both of them," he pushed the items toward Remus.  
"I can't take these, I already have Sirius' mirror, and the map is of no use to me. But I do have one question. If you had the mirror, why didn't you use it to contact Sirius?"  
A tear left Harry's eye, but he wiped it quickly, hoping that Ginny didn't notice. She had, but thought it noble of him, not many boys have the courage cry in front of their friends. "I didn't know what it was, it was just a package. Sirius told me to use it to contact him if I needed to, but I soon forgot about it. I think the fact that I had no idea what it was made it easier to forget. I still can't believe that I could've talked to him!" Harry exclaimed, his voice cracking. When he saw the confused looks on Ginny's, Ron's, and Hermione's faces, he passed around the note that came with it. He couldn't talk abut his huge mistake without bawling like a baby, and he didn't' want to do that in front of Ginny. After realizing what it was, Ron and Ginny sat staring at Harry in total disbelief.  
"You know, if that didn't happen, if we hadn't gone to the Ministry, Umbridge would still be running the show, and you would still be treated like a crazy man. Plus, I examined the situation, it was only a matter of time before the Malfoys got the Order Headquarters address out of Kreacher. He would have had to punish himself, but there was nothing really stopping him from revealing all the secrets. Voldemort would have figured out some way to get in. It was only a matter of about a week, or maybe two before he was killed by Voldemort anyway, then Dumbledore still would have been in hiding" Hermione said, trying to comfort Harry. He wanted to believe that, but couldn't do it. He couldn't just make himself believe that he did nothing wrong, after all the damage he had caused.  
Harry had to ask Lupin if Sirius was going to get an honorary pardon, so he is remembered for who he was, not a criminal. "Fudge says he will, but he said that it would officially corrected and announced in The Daily Prophet by yesterday, and nothing has happened," Lupin responded. After a few moments of silence, Lupin decided to change the subject, everyone was ready to think about something else. "So, is everybody done with there summer homework?"  
"Yes!" Hermione practically shouted, "I made sure of that!"  
"Good" said Lupin. "So what are your future plans, you were supposed to have your meeting on your future career this year, right?"  
"I want to be an Auror," said Harry, "Professor McGonagal said I would make a good one, but Umbridge disagreed, she pointed out that I was getting low marks in her class, and then McGonagal said 'yes, and he's gotten high marks from every competent teacher'" Lupin smiled.  
"We don't mean to sound like, well, suck-ups, but you re the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had, by like, a million times," Ron stated. Their discussion on careers was interrupt by dinner, everyone immediately forgot the conversation.  
At dinner Lupin told everyone that Leylani was coming. "Oh, yes Dumbledore wrote to us about that," Arthur commented, "Haven't seen since before she left, but I bet you've seen her, right Lupin?"  
"No, not really," Lupin informed, "I considered visiting her in Mozambique for a while, but I had a small window due to weather, and um, the full moon got in the way."  
"Who's Leylani?" an inquisitive Ron asked.  
"She used to be an Auror for the Ministry, but ever since Voldemort tried to steal the Philosopher's Stone, she's been traveling the world recruiting people for the Order, long distance. She spent most of her time in Africa, got us about 400 supporters from all-over the continent!"  
"Wow!" exclaimed Hermione, "that's 80 people a year!" she added. Hermione did think it rather odd that an auror would leave the country the minute she thought there was a threat of Voldemort returning. It seemed like a very wormtail-esque thing to do. Hermoine didn't want to bring this matter up, though, she thought she ought to research it before making the adults question this friend just in case she was all right.  
Just then, there was a knock at the door. "Lani!!!!" Remus shouted.  
Lani's response "Remus?" struck Hermione as slightly odd, even though she sounded incredibly ecstatic to see him, she had an odd sound of doubt in her voice, as though she wasn't sure Remus was who he was. She seemed to be staring right at him, but almost couldn't see him. "I can't believe I'm finally back! So, how are you all?" Yep, something was definitely off.  
Lupin introduced all the Weasleys, none of the adults (people over eighteen) found it odd that she hardly looked the people she was introduced to. "This is Ron, the youngest Weasley son, and Ginny the only daughter, and baby of the family," Lupin stated, "and these are Harry and Hermione friends of Ginny and Ron."  
"Harry Potter?" she asked, funny, most people realized who he was sooner, "I haven't met you since, well, since the night your parents died." She said met not seen, another oddity. It was getting late, the children were sent off to bed. 


	4. Losing All Control

A/N: It's corny, but I warned ya! Okay so tell me all da wrongs and I'll right 'em, show me all da battles and I'll fight 'em -my mother circa 1973. More Rooney to come!  
  
Disclaimer: much to my dismay I'm not J. K. Rowling, meaning I DON'T own Harry Potter or any affiliated characters, places, or spells, etc.  
  
Chapter 4: Losing All Control  
  
Hermione stood in front of a mirror brushing her hair and putting on muggle make up, the only problem was, what she was doing was not being reflected in the mirror. In the mirror, she was writing on a piece of parchment, and doing some sort of research. Ron was also reflected in the mirror, he was telling her to stop working. He kept telling her they had a date soon, she should get ready, "I am!" she insisted, but he kept looking at her reflection, not her, "Don't believe the dumb mirror, it's jinxed, look at me! I'm brushing my hair!" They were having one of their usual arguments.  
A voice rang through the room, seemingly Ron's though his lips weren't moving, "I'm losing you, I'm losing all control. Just let me be," the voice seemed to have changed to Hermione's, though neither she nor her reflection was speaking anymore, "Just let me be alone for now. Once again we've gone off track and lost all hope for coming back," this was the exact way Hermione felt after all of their arguments! "It's time to restart and then, try all over over again,"  
Hermione woke up immediately understanding her dream, "Well that's one definite sign your a TOTAL nerd, your dreams come with their own analyses," she thought to herself. She looked at her watch, i was only 12:30 am. She was about to go back to sleep, but then she heard voices. She crept out of bed and headed down the stairs, she caught Harry eves- dropping, and decided to join him.  
"You at least got to see him!" It was Leylani, talking to Remus.  
"I had unfair advantage in that department, I'll admit," Remus laughed a little, secretly it was the only way to keep himself from crying, "You never got to see him, what was I supposed to do, you never made this much fuss about never seeing James," Harry went red in the face, simply at his father's name.  
"That's not what I meant. What I did mean was I never got to talk to him, not since the night before James and Lily died, anyway. That was also the last time I talked to them. I mean, I knew he was innocent, wormtail always seemed so much less trustworthy, I 'wrote' to him about a million times since he got out, but I never got any response, or at least not one of any use."  
"What d'you s'pose she means by that" Ron whispered (he ws on the other side f Hermione as Harry), she flinched, she had not been expecting any noise from that side.  
"When did you get hear hear?" she whispered back.  
"'Bout twenty seconds after you did," he answered.  
"Don't scare me like that!" just then they heard stirring noises from Percy's room and decided to go back to bed from fear of getting caught.  
The next morning they got back to discussing careers. They were already giving Ginny advice on what O.W.L.s she would need to do what careers, this included what classes she needed to buckle down in and which classes she could basically forget. All this reminded Remus of when he and his friends were thinking about the same things. It also reminded him of what they actually became. How it had turned so wrong. How Voldemort caused them, and everyone to lose all control of their lives, except for maybe wormtail. Then he was reminded of the dream he had the other night. the words "frightened of this thing that I've become," rang through his head. Lani noticed his tone of voice had changed. She could sense his pain, and it hurt her too. She wanted him to be happy, but happiness wasn't coming to Remus anytime soon.  
"You know, Leylani's an auror, maybe she could give you guy some tips!" Remus said, sort of as an excuse to leave the conversation, and the room.  
"Well, okay, though I must admit, when I became an auror, things were very different. I graduated Hogwarts two years after, um, Voldemort was defeated," she had trouble with the end of the sentence, not wanting to say "after Harry's parents died." She gave them a few pointers, and tips like, "It doesn't hurt to take extra notes, even if your not going to be tested on it, it could come in handy outside of class," and, "Don't let Professor Snape get to you, he's all right."  
"That's easy fro you to say," Harry replied to her tip on Snape.  
"Just because he's my cousin, doesn't mean I got any special treatment!" she said "He hated me for being a Gryffindor."  
"We didn't know he was your cousin," Hermione said, but noted it, wormtail proved that not all Gryffindor's were good, and she already seemed rather suspicious. The discussion ended there, nobody could think of anything else relevant to say. Leylani was now painting her fingernails, Hermione noticed that she wasn't even looking at her fingers! But it didn't matter, not a drop spilled, in fact her crimson nails ended up looking flawless! Once her nails dried (within about two minutes thanks to a heating charm, she started doing her hair, in a bun. Then she applied make up. Both looking perfect (the bun was centered exactly!) and what's more? She did all this without the use of a mirror, a feat Hermione only dreamed of accomplishing, "oh yeah, dream, mirrors, no help," she thought," odd how well that brought me back to it. As Leylani finished up her lip gloss, and moved on to eye shadow, Hermione thought to offer her her mirror, she took it out of her pocket, then it hit her! "It all adds up now! She doesn't look at who she's speaking to, or what she's doing! My mirror wouldn't help her! SHE'S BLIND!" this struck Hermione so hard that she practically screamed it.  
"So how do you do all that stuff withou--OW!" Ron was about to ask a stupid question before Hermione elbowed him, very hard.  
"I 'see' that Hermione's figured something out about me that young Mr. Weasley hasn't," Leylani commented, "You are, by the way, correct in guessing that I cannot see."  
Harry, who'd been of in his own world,was utterly surprised by this comment for a moment, then things started to make sense, and he drifted off again. He was happily dreaming until he realized, "How does a blind person become an auror?"  
"The best way to learn is to ask. I was, luckily, gifted with better- than-usual senses from birth. I've always had great hearing, I have no use for extendable ears. Plus I have greater senses of smell, taste, and feeling, than most people, even if my hears are plugged, I can tell when somebody walks into or out of a room, and if I know them well, or it's a Malfoy, I can tell who it is, I have the hearing and sense of smell much like a wolf. I used o have above-average sight as well, but that ended at age four, since then I've seen nothing but light and shadows."  
"Are you a--" Ron started a question again, and like the last time did not get to finish it.  
"No, I'm not a werewolf, but am good friends with one," she said referring to Remus. "though I wish we were more than just friends" she thought, but didn't dare speak it when he was within earshot of her. He had walked in second before her comment, and at the end thought the same exact addition.  
"So you consider me a friend, I thought I was you idol," he said with a hollow laugh.  
"You were, back at Hogwarts. Things changed when, well you know," she replied.  
Just then, the children in the room were called off to clean part of the house. This left Remus and Leylani alone for a while. "You know I used to really love you, back in school."  
"I figured, with an entire fan club devoted to me, there wasn't much denying it," Remus told her, he couldn't help but wonder why humans had that constant need to state the obvious, "You always seemed so young for me then."  
"Well, six years is a big difference, especially to a teenager," he wanted to continue with "but in our thirties, it seems like no time at all," only he didn't have he courage to. "Not much of a Gryfindor am I?" he thought to himself, "oh what the hell?" he decided to tell her his comment about their age difference.  
"Glad you see it my way!" She told him. After a long pause she added, shyly, "'cause, I kind of still like you, or love you, or something."  
Huge grins spread across both of their faces. "Then I'm glad I see it your way, too." It was rather sad that it took this long for them to get together, though. She was going to leave in a few days, and wasn't coming back until around the time of the Christmas Holidays. But, at least they still had four more days. Most of time she had left she spent talking to Remus about various things. Among their conversations the one they spent the most time on was about his teaching experiences at Hogwarts. Hermione "overheard" some of the conversation, and added that to her list of Lani's (they all eventually became comfortable enough with her to call her by her nickname) eccentricities.  
The day before she left, one week before school started, the kids (Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny, or the ones who hadn't finished school) where asking the "new guy" the usual million questions, they were still at 999,978 when Ginny inquired as to how much sight she did have, how much "light and shadows" included.  
"Well, it's like walking around with you eyes closed. I can see shapes when they block light but that's about all. But it's different when I'm in the presence of a thestral, then, I can see the outline of it, as though a light were shining at me from behind it. And I can see in all of my dreams, the problem lies in my eyes, not brain."  
"Is that some magical property of thestrals that wasn't in any book? Can all blind people see them?" Hermione asked.  
"No, most can't, at least, nobody that was born blind. I had the misfortune of witnessing a murder before I went blind."  
"Oh, sorry" Hermione apologized, noting the entire conversation.  
That night, everyone said good-by to Lani after dinner. Well, everyone but Lupin, that is. Everyone decided that they'd let them pack her stuff in piece. She left at 2:35 am, leaving them close to five hours between the time she was packed and the time she had to leave. It was these five our that she decided they would have the talk that he had been dreading since they got together, the infamous "us " talk.  
"Okay, we both know that I don't want to leave, but I have to, Dumbledore needs me. So I was hoping we could continue our relationship long-distance."  
"That was it?" Remus thought, "Of course!" Remus exclaimed, "I couldn't break up with you, I mean, your all I have that's going good in my life!" ("Great," he thought, "I sound like corny Weird Sisters song") "I mean, I like working for the Order, but things were going badly. Truth be told, before I got your letter, I was pretty depressed. And now that we're, um, well, together," he continued. It felt odd to him talking about having a girl friend since he hadn't had one in fifteen years, since Rhea was killed by Voldemort. "Well, now that I have you, I finally have hope that things might actually get better."  
"I never knew how things were before I came back, but I'm happy to see I made a positive impact." The rest of the night continued smoothly, now that they'd put that whole little discussion behind them. Later, Lupin was happy to receive his first real kiss in fifteen years.  
Even though he still missed Sirius dearly, this was the first tim in his life that Lupin felt like things were going all right in his life. It was like Lani had cured some of the pains that had been haunting him for years (not the ones caused by various deaths in his life, more the ones caused by not being accepted in the real world, and never knowing what that "love" thing James kept ranting and raving about was and why it was so great). Suddenly Lupin was brought back to part of the dream he had the night before she came. It wasn't just "frightened of this thing that I've become" that he remembered earlier, it was, "I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become." This was it, the cure to his disease, to his depression. He accompanied her on her that night, I mean was he supposed to trust just Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley to escort her all the way, what if something happened?  
  
A/N (again): Okay, so if the prospect of a blind auror scares you, or you just can't believe it, I have three words for you: IT'S NOT REAL! This story is fiction, I made it up, it doesn't have to agree with reason, furthermore, all of Harry Potter and his world is fiction. It's made up!!! It's the proof that J. K. Rowling has a very active imagination, and likes teaching the world lessons. But if it seems far-fetched, it is. Give me a bad review if you'd like to. In fact, I'd love some constructive criticism.  
  
Sincerely,  
Sirius Black's Wife (widow now, I guess), Maxine 


End file.
